Letter to Ambassador Johnnie Carson

Dear Mr Carson, on July 30, 2010, I read a statement in the Uganda media attributed to you which we should not let pass without comment. The American people are friends of Ugandans. Ugandans admire and envy Americans for their robust democracy and freedom of the individual. We expect a lot from America as regards democracy, freedom, integrity and honesty.

In 2001 and 2006 presidential election petitions by Dr Kizza Besigye, the Supreme Court of Uganda established and unanimously agreed that those elections were not held in accordance with the Constitution and the electoral law and that the elections were not free and fair. We are sure that you, having represented your country in Uganda for several years, know this very well.

Boston Globe
We believe it was with this knowledge that you wrote in the Boston Globe newspaper on May 1, 2005 that President Yoweri Museveni had “thirst for power” and likened him to President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. You were responding to Mr Museveni’s ignominious manoeuvres when he bribed Members of Parliament to remove presidential term limits from the Constitution his own government had made 10 years earlier.

We were, therefore, surprised and extremely disappointed that you, a minister of the most powerful democratic country in the world, who is in charge of African Affairs, would laugh as you answered a journalist’s question in Kampala on July 27 thus “I do not think President Museveni is a dictator. I think President Museveni is the duly elected leader of the country that he’s been elected openly and transparently in free and fair elections”. Surely? And why did you laugh at the question? Isn’t this intellectual dishonesty? How can Ugandans respect and trust your government’s word again?

Whitewashing dictator
Why, for example, does your government take tough pro-people, pro-democracy positions on Kenya’s governments while in Uganda you decide to invest your country’s interests in a self-declared dictator who once dismissed our Constitution as mere pieces of paper which could not prevent him, “a revolutionary”, from doing whatever he wanted?
We are tempted to believe that you are whitewashing the dictator because of his opportunistic and adventurous involvement in the Somalia conflict. But remember that Somalia is not more important to Ugandans than their democracy and freedom to choose their leaders “openly and transparently” to use your words. Most Ugandans know that Mr Museveni has never been elected openly and transparently. He came to power in 1986 after a five-year bloody war that left over 500,000 people dead. After that, he has always rigged elections, ironically a vice he said he went to the bush to wage war against!

Over the past 25 years as president, he has developed into a fully blown power thirsty dictator. He is not much different from a 14th Century patriarch exercising patrimonial rule over the people. The only difference is that his is a neo-patrimonial regime with a semblance of State institutions like the Executive, Parliament and Judiciary, Army, Police, Public Service and Electoral Commission. We say a semblance because all these institutions will not do anything that is contrary to his wishes or personal interests. He has, in essence, killed all our state institutions and usurped their powers. One time he said that as President, he is next to God.

Mr Minister, we know that you know that we have one-man rule in Uganda. That Mr Museveni is still holding onto power by employing brutal force against the political opposition, personally handing out money in brown envelopes, gifts and government project items to selected individuals across the country in order to win or retain their loyalty and support. Does President Barrack Obama ever do such a thing?

To identify the recipients of presidential favours are his numerous agents, politicians, and security operatives. At the same time, these agents bombard the public with propaganda -- false facts and figures about the success of government programmes, spread fear, instil lies and misinformation against the opposition.

Yet they will not allow the opposition to reply or reach the public and also market their programmes. The media, especially radio stations upcountry, constantly receive “orders from above” not to host opposition leaders on their programmes. Most newspapers rarely carry any positive reports about opposition parties, what they intend to do for Ugandans while in power or the extent of their popular support by way of pictures of multitudes of people at their mobilisation rallies.

Future sealed
Mr Museveni has favoured his relatives, in-laws, friends and a few people from his region of origin with senior state positions. The beneficiaries of his plot then see their future as sealed in the fate of the regime and will not appreciate any criticism of the wrongs they are doing. They see those who criticise them as enemies who must be crushed politically, economically and socially. The President too talks a similar a language. He will not permit any opposition-leaning businesses, however qualified they may be, to secure government contracts.

In line with the thinking and practice of kings of old, the President has subdivided the country into small economically unviable fiefdoms called districts to reward more agents with useless public jobs, win some votes and set various communities against each other then play the arbiter! Uganda was better administered and national resources better utilised on more quality services when it had 38 districts than today when it has 113.
Ugandans are suffering the effects of corruption perpetrated by the rulers amidst increasing mass poverty. Social services have broken down completely. For example, only about 10 per cent of the sick bother to visit public health facilities today, the millions of dollars your government donates to Uganda for health notwithstanding. Most of it is stolen.

Waging wars
Mr Minister, President Museveni cares more about waging wars for self-preservation in power. For 25 years, under his rule, Uganda has been at war in Rwanda, DR Congo, in Sudan and now in Central African Republic and Somalia. We are now known as a war-mongering country in the region. Our meagre resources are wasted on wars at the expense of social services.

Mr Minister, we pray that as you work for your country’s interests in Uganda and our region, you should never forget that we too, even if we are weak, have our own national interests to protect and work for.

Mr Oguttu is spokesperson, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)